


The Countdown

by SkyEverett



Category: Death Note, Death Note: Another Note
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Psychological Trauma, Suicide, Suicide Notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 00:59:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3917278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyEverett/pseuds/SkyEverett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beyond Birthday could see people's remaining lifespan above their heads.  Like a countdown, the numbers ticked away seconds of their lives.  His best friend A was no exception to this ability.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Countdown

 “Hey, B?”  
  
At those two words, the black haired boy looked up at his brown-haired friend.  “I told you, don’t call me ‘B’.  It’s BB.”  
  
“Could you forgive me for making the mistake one more time?” asked the first speaker with a smile, who went by A.  
  
BB nodded, thinking that this was logical enough.  If A couldn’t remember BB’s chosen name, then BB would make sure to never forget A’s.  And how could he?  It was floating above his head every time he looked.  “What do you need, A?” asked Beyond, more depressed than usual today.  
  
“Do…you think you could deliver this letter to Roger before nightfall tonight?” asked A.  His blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight as he held out a sealed envelope to Beyond.   
   
Beyond let out a sigh and took the paper.  “I thought you were going to ask me to assist you in your suicide,” he muttered under his breath.  
  
“What?” asked A, his smile faltering for a moment.  
  
“Nothing,” answered Beyond.  “Nothing at all.  Sure, I’ll deliver this to Professor Ruvie.”  
  
“Thank you…BB,” answered A, standing up and brushing some spare grass off of his shirt.  “You really are a true friend.”  
  
Beyond resisted an urge to laugh.  Despite his depression, he was getting a lot of those strange urges lately.  Maybe it was because part of him was going to die tonight and he couldn’t stop it.  Fate couldn’t be stopped.  “Am I?” he asked.  “I’m never allowed to help you on your assignments, and I know that they’re hard.  Living up to L’s legend…that must be the most difficult thing in the world.”  
  
“Thank you for your concern,” laughed A, “but I’m supposed to handle all of it on my own.  And the assignments are getting a little bit easier.”  
  
 _Liar._   Beyond frowned up at him.   _How can you be a good friend if you’re never honest with me?  If only you knew…_  
  
“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”  A stood up and walked over to the courtyard’s exit doors.  Beyond continued to sit on the park bench in the middle of the courtyard with the sun blazing through his bangs and hurting his eyes.  
  
“If L is a genius, A must be an extreme genius,” he whispered.  No one heard him.  He was alone.  
  


* * *

  
  
A sat in his room, hoping that B would be able to deliver the letter before Lights Out tonight.  He barely closed the curtains in his room so that one tiny ray of sunshine fell on his bed.  He locked his door and nodded, slightly scared, as he pulled the shot glass and bottle of liquid out from under his bed.  He poured himself a glass and gulped it down, wincing at the taste.  “Here’s to L, and all of the useless things he’s taught me.”  He threw the glass in his trash bin and laid down on the floor, facing that one thread of light that shone into his otherwise dark room.  
  


* * *

Beyond sauntered through the dorm rooms, clutching the letter in one hand.  He had read its contents only minutes before and had no intention of giving it to the professor, at least not yet.  He stopped by A’s room and tried to open the door.  It was locked.  “A?  Are you in here?” he asked.  “A?  Open up.”  Knowing that he would get no answer, he backed up against the wall and threw himself against the locked door.  The hinges splintered and Beyond forced himself into the room.  
  
A body was on the floor with no name above it and no numbers above it either.  Some part of Beyond knew that it was a corpse, but another, more sane part saw it just as anyone else would upon walking into the room.  It was that part that successfully persuaded Beyond to run to A, check his pulse, and shake him, urging him to wake up and not leave him alone.  Saying that he was his best friend and that it wasn’t fair for him to commit suicide.    
  
And after years bunched up into tiny little minutes, that sane part of him died with A.  He simply fixed A’s hair, got to his feet, and tried to put the door back as gingerly as he could.  He then closed the curtains completely—plunging the entire room into darkness—and got into A’s untouched bed.  He was suddenly very tired, and felt an overpowering urge to rest.  Seemingly forgetting that there was a dead body in the room, Beyond fell asleep with the comforter over his head.  
  
 _“Is he all right?”_  
  
“He hasn’t responded to any questions at all.”  
  
“His best friend’s just killed himself—of course he isn't alright.”  
  
“Just leave him be for now.”  
  
Beyond blinked and looked up at the swarm of police officers that had suddenly appeared in front of him.  “What are you doing here?” he asked.  It wasn’t normal for police officers to be in his room at this early hour.  
  
One police officer looked up at him, and he saw that it was Professor Ruvie.  “We’re trying to find the cause of the death of A,” he answered.  
  
“A is dead,” Beyond said simply.  “He committed suicide.”  
  
“Yes,” answered Professor Ruvie.  “And now you are L’s successor, B.”  
  
“Me,” stated Beyond.  “You’re just going to shove A aside like he was nothing.”  
  
“Of course not,” replied Professor Ruvie.  “But we are going to make sure L has a successor.  You always were brilliant, B, and we need that brilliance when L passes.”  
  
“Passes,” Beyond mused.  “So I’ll beat L.  Surpass him.”  
  
“If you work hard, yes.”  
  
“If I work hard…”  Beyond stared at Professor Ruvie, at the clear blue—almost gray—eyes of his superior, then at a space above his head.  “Roger Ruvie…”  
  
“What was that?” The professor sounded scared.  Beyond decided he liked that.  He liked ‘scared’.  
  
“Isn’t that your full name?  Roger Ruvie?”  
  
Professor Ruvie’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.  Beyond nodded, stood up from his position on the bed, and walked out.  The police tried to stop him—they were convinced that he was going to answer questions for them.  Stupid fools.  Even as he turned away, their names and lifespans flashed before his eyes.  One of them was going to die in a car accident two weeks exactly from this date at the age of 29.  But Beyond was done warning people.  No one listened to him; they thought he was crazy.  Now he probably was.  
  
That’s how he knew that A was going to die on the day before this one.  That he was going to crack under the pressure and take his own life.  On that day, the numbers that floated above A’s head were all zeroes.  Like it had been counting down to the end of A’s life.  
  
Like a countdown…yes, exactly like a countdown.    
  
Beyond kept walking.  Down the halls, into the courtyard, up to the gate, out of the orphanage.  No longer was he going to be a “backup.”  He hated that word, hated it with every ounce of his being.  But he couldn’t kill it.  That was what he hated most about it.  Ruvie and the police could have been disposed of easily if he had a knife…no, there wasn’t time to think about that right now.  Ruvie had told him consistently that he had the face of L.  With a little haircut, he’d look exactly like him.  “But I’ll surpass L in my own way,” he said out loud.  He didn’t care if anyone heard him.  “If L is a genius, BB is an extreme genius.”  He drew a hand across his face, memorizing it; the one face he couldn’t see the lifespan of.  “If L is a freak, then BB is an extreme freak.”  If only he could look at his own face and see L’s name in the mirror.  
  
And it was after he had walked about three blocks from the orphanage that Beyond finally allowed the laughter to come.

**Author's Note:**

> Probably one of the darkest fanfics I've ever written.


End file.
